Page:The Brass Check (Sinclair 1919).djvu/278

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Lindsey and the miners' wives. Here is the "Baltimore News" of Munsey, the stock-gambler. Here is the "Washington Post," which, as I shall narrate, had a typewritten copy of a speech by Albert Williams, and deliberately made up false quotations. Here is the "Chicago Tribune," which slandered Henry Ford, and the "Chicago Daily News," which, with the "Tribune," robs the Chicago school-children. Here is the "Cincinnati Times-Star," which set out to fight Boss Cox, and didn't. Here is the "Boston Herald," which, I shall show you, refused President Wilson's speech as an advertisement, and the "Boston Traveller," which lied about my magazine. Here is the "Kansas City Star," which hounded Mrs. Stokes to jail, and the "St. Paul Dispatch," whose misdeeds I have just listed. Here is the "Oil City Derrick," owned by Standard Oil, and the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer," whose bonds were found in the vaults of the Great Northern Railroad. Here is the "Portland Oregonian," which exists for large-scale capital, and the "Milwaukee Sentinel," owned by Pfister, who owns most of Milwaukee. Here is the "New York Herald," which suppressed my Packingtown story, and paid me damages for the Tarrytown libel. Here is the "New York Evening Post," which failed to expose the Associated Press, and the "New York World," which favors twenty-cent meals for department-store girls; here is the "New York Tribune," which lied about the Socialist state legislators, and the "New York Times," which has lied about me so many times that I can't count them.

Such are the newspapers which control the Associated Press: a "stand-pat" machine, precisely like the Aldrich machine which once controlled the United States Senate, and the Cannon machine which once controlled the House. Mr. Stone does his best to persuade me that in the maintenance of this control the bonds have not played any part. He writes:


Since the organization, over one hundred elections of directors have taken place. In one case only, I believe, was the result different from what it would have been if no votes had been cast upon the bonds.


And here again Mr. Stone is treating me as a child. Of the total bonds the big insiders control nine-tenths. Of the total number of votes cast at elections, they control five-sixths. A successful rebellion is thus obviously impossible; and the penalty of an unsuccessful rebellion, as I shall presently show,